"He was just sticking up for me," said Stubbs, aggrievedly. "But I'll
tell him."

He did so, but the dwarf said nothing.

At this juncture the big Cossack poked his head from beneath the rock.

"Are you coming in here or not?" he demanded in a gruff voice.

"Coming," said Hal, dropping to his knees.

"Look here, Hal," said Stubbs, "I don't like the looks of this place.
Maybe we had better stay outside."

"Nonsense," Edwards spoke up at this point. "The man means us no harm."

Hal had disappeared beneath the rock and Edwards dropped to his knees and
crawled after him.

"Well," said Stubbs to himself, "I don't like this, but I guess I might
as well go along."

Motioning Nikol to follow him, he, too, dropped to all fours and crawled
slowly beneath the big rock.

Beyond the rock, a brisk fire made dimly visible what appeared to be a
large cavern. The fire seemed to be in the exact center of a large
underground room and beyond it Hal thought he could make out the mouths
of dark passageways that led off in several directions.